in the tenth year of his miffion, Moham med told his uncle Abu Taleb, that God had manifeftly fhewed his difapprobation of the covenant entered into again't them, by fending a worm to eat out the most material words of the inftrument. Hereupon, Abu Taleb acquainted the Koreifh immediately with it; offering, if it proved falfe, to deliver his nephew up to them; but, in cafe it were true, he infifted, that they ought to lay afide their animofity, and annul the league they had made against the Hafhemites. To this they acquiefced; and, go. ing to infpect the writing, to their great aftonishment, found it as Abu Taleb had faid; and the league was thereupon declared void. This extraordinary affair, which proved of fuch fignal fervice to Mohammed, was, probably, even according to Mr. Sale himself, the effect of collufion, fince the perfon, who, as he infinuates, gave the impoftor private notice of the deftruction of fo many words in the inftrument, did, in all likelihood, by his directions, erafe them. Abu Taleb did not long furvive this accommodation, as neither did the prophet's wife Khadijah. Two fuch finifter events, coming as it were together, could not but prove extremely prejudicial to his affairs; for which reason, this year is called by the Mohammedans The Year of Mourning.'

of

Before the expiration of the 10th year his miffion, it is faid, that, on the infidels demanding a fign of him, the moon appeared cloven in two, one part vanishing, and the other remaining; and Ebu Maled affirmed, that he faw mount Hara interpo e between the two fections. Notwithstanding this, after the death of his wife and uncle, the Koreish began to be more troublesome than ever to him; efpecially fome who had formerly been his intimate friends: Infomuch, that he found himfelf obliged to feek for fhelter at Tayef, about 60 miles east from Mecca. He made fome converts among the inhabitants; but their chiefs received him very coldly, and even treated him with fome contempt; and, at laft, the inferior people, rifing against him, obliged him to depart and return to Mecca. This laft repulfe greatly discouraged the new converts, perceiving from hence that their countrymen were more than ever incenfed against them. However, Mohammed continued boldly to preach to the public affemblies at the pilgrimage, who reforted to Mecca, on that occafion, from all parts of Arabia, though he expofed his perfon to infults and affronts, and his life itself to no fmall danger, by fo doing. Here he gained feveral profelytes, and amongst them fix of the inhabitants of

Yathreb, of the Jewish tribe of Khazrai; who, on their return home, failed not to fpeak much in commendation of their new religion, and exhorted their fellow-citizens to embrace it. We are told that this tribe, and that of the Aws, were reconciled immediately after their converfion to Mohammedifm, though they had before been at variance 120 years.

The next remarkable event, we find related of Mohammed by Abulfeda, is the night-journey he made from Mecca to Jerufalem, and from thence to heaven, fo much spoken of by all that have written of him. This happened in the 12th year of his prophetic function. Lying one night in the open air, between the mountains of Al Safa and Merwa, near Mecca, he was accofted by the angel Gabriel, and another heavenly fpirit with him. Gabriel opened his heart, wrung out the black drop, or feed of original fin, wafhed and cleanfed the fame, filled it with wifdom and faith, and then put it into its proper place, out of which he had taken it for the more expeditious and convenient performance of that operation. Afterwards Gabriel, with 70 pair of wings expanded from his fides, brought to our apoftle the beast Al Borak'; which, fay the Mohammedans, was the beaft the prophets used to ride, when they were carried from one place to another, upon the execution of any divine command. Mohammed defcribes this animal to have been as white as milk, to have resembled an aís as well as a mule, and to have been of a fize fomething less than the latter, but larger than the former. The face of Al Borak was also like that of a man, and his jaws like thofe of a horse. His eyes fhone with as great a luftre as the ftars would do, were they enlightened by the folar rays, and he had two wings refembling those of an ea gle. The Moflems befides pretend, that he was endued with a rational foul, fo that he could hear, reason, and understand, though he was destitute naturally of the faculty of fpeech. He could move with fuch surpris ing velocity, that he was able to pass from one place to another as quick as lightning s from whence he received the name of AI Borak, which denotes lightning, or ra ther the author of lightning, the thunderer,' in the Arabic tongue. At Moham med's approach, he kicked with great force, and would not fuffer the prophet to mount him; upon which Gabriel expoftulating with the beaft, he took him on his back, and carried him through the air to Jerufalem in the twinkling of an eye. no fooner arrived there than he went to the

He

temple,

temple, where he found Abraham, Mofes, and Jefus, with a great number of the prophets and faints, who all faluted him, and immediately went to prayers with him. After which, Gabriel and he afcended a ladder of light, which they found ready fixed for them, and left Al Borak upon the facred fpot till their return. Then they proceeded directly to the first heaven, and fucceffively to the fecond, third, fourth, fifth, fixth, and feventh; in all which they were complimented by numberless angels, appearing in different prodigious fhapes of animals. In the 7th heaven, Mohammed found Jefus Chrift, and recommended himself to his prayers; which amounts to a clear acknowledgement in the Arab prophet of our Saviour's fuperiority, though the ftaunch and orthodox Mohammedans entertain higher notions of their prophet. Gabriel, not being permitted to advance further, left him in the care of the angel Ifrafel, who, as we are told, has a million of heads, every one of which has a million of mouths, to every one of which there is a million of tongues, and that every one of these tongues fpeaks a million of different languages, in which this angel is day and night inceffantly praifing God. At laft, Mohammed, after having traversed almost infinite tracts of space, approached the immediate prefence of God himself; when he heard a voice faying unto him, O Mohammed, advance, and approach the glorious and powerful God. Upon which, afcending higher, he faw a luminous appearance of a moft tranfcendent brightnefs, and, at the divine command, drew fo near to the Almighty, that he was fcarce two bows length diftant from him. On the right fide of the throne was written,There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his apoftle: Which words, containing the two fundamental articles of faith of the Moflems, he also pretends to have found inscribed on all the gates of the feven heavens, through which he paffed. Being thus introduced into the divine prefence, as he tells us, he faw God fitting on his throne; who, as a mark of his favour, put one of his hands upon the prophet's breaft, and the other upon his fhoulder, the coldness of which was fo intenfe that it pierced through every part; though immediately afterwards an ineffable sweetness and complacency, flowing from the divine prefence, diffufed itself over his foul, and filled him with a moft perfect pleasure. After which, he had a long and familiar confe.

rence with God, who revealed many hidden myfteries to him, and inftructed him in the knowledge of his law, gave him fome rules for the better regulation of his conduct, and the more effectual communication of this knowledge to the people over whom he was to prefide, and conferred many fingular pri vileges upon him.

The prophet, having thus received full inftructions immediately from the Almighty himself, met Gabriel again at a proper place, who conducted him through various defcents, and the feven heavens, to Jerufalem, where he mounted Al Borak, and was from thence attended by the Angel all the way to Mecca. The generality of the Moslems believe, that this journey was performed corporally by him; but when Mohammed first told this ftory to his uncle Al Abbas, and Om Hana, the daughter of Abu Taleb, it feemed fo abfurd and incredible to both of them, that they endeavoured by all means to diffuade him from communicating it to the Koreifh. Being notwithstanding refolved to push the point in view, he was imprudent enough to relate the whole affair to Abu Tahl, one of the most active and inveterate of his enemies, who ridiculed him for it. Nay, he placed his relation in fo ridiculous a light to the Koreifh, that they were upon the point of infulting him; infomuch, that feveral of his followers left him upon it; and it had probably ruined the whole defign, had not Abu Becr vouched for his veracity, and declared, that, if Mohammed affirmed it to be true, he verily be. lieved the whole: Which happy incident not only retrieved the prophet's credit, but increafed it to a fuch a degree, that he was fecure of being able to make his difciples swallow whatever he pleased to impose upon them for the future.

To conclude this head, the Moflem doctors are not quite agreed, as to the manner in which their prophet faw God; fome maintaining, that he faw him with his real natural eyes, and others with the eyes only of the mind. In fome fenfe or other, however, Mohammed's journey to heaven must be acknowledged by every orthodox Moslem; it being reputed by all the doctors of the law as heinous a crime, and as damnable an error, to deny the traditional history of that famous event, as to disbelieve any point infifted on in the Koran.

[This life to be finished in our Supplement.]

OBSER